The present invention relates generally to plastic bags and their manufacture, and more particularly provides a plastic bag having an integral, ready-to-use plastic film tie element thereon which may be easily and quickly used to tightly close the bag, and associated methods for fabricating the bag and integral tie element structure.
A wide variety of closure devices are commonly used to close the upper ends of plastic bags such as the now-common plastic trash bag. These closure devices range from simple plastic clips or twist ties packaged separately from or removably connected to the individual bags, to relatively complex draw string-type devices in which portions of the bag itself, or a separate draw string element, must be laboriously threaded through multiple openings in the bag and then pulled to close the upper bag end.
Conventional bag closure devices of these and various other types suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages and limitations:
1. They are relatively expensive to manufacture and/or attach to the bags in the bag manufacturing process;
2. They are separate from the bag and are thus easily lost;
3. They are difficult to use, particularly by persons with only limited manual dexterity;
4. They must be removed from the bag and then reoriented and manipulated to effect bag closure;
5. They are relatively thick and stiff and, if attached to the bags during formation thereof, can potentially interfere with both the bag-forming and bag-packaging- processes;
6. They undesirably delay the bag-forming process;
7. They cannot be firmly pulled, to effect tight bag closure, without potentially damaging the bag and/or the closure device, or causing separation of the closure device from its associated bag; and
8. They are of only marginal effectiveness in maintaining firm bag closure.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a plastic bag and integral closure element structure, and associated manufacturing methods therefor, which eliminates or minimizes above-mentioned and other disadvantages and limitations commonly associated with conventionally constructed plastic bag and closure element combinations.